Streetlights And Skylines
by Lizzie9
Summary: I know you still love me Elliot! she screamed at him. Maybe. But I don't trust you enough not to leave! He screamed back. Olivia returns to the 16 to find Elliot engaged. Sex, fights and a few rape cases all lead to a showdown on wedding day.
1. Prolouge

Title: Streetlights and Skylines

Author: Sara and Lizzie

Rating: T for language, a little violence and little sex

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf is God, obviously, since he really does own Law and Order, but since he'd never stick this on at 10 pm Tuesdays, we took the liberty of doing it for him.

Summary: Four years ago, Elliot attended Olivia's funeral. Little did he know, the casket was empty, and Olivia was in a condo in Los Angeles, calling herself Lucy. But, when the man who forced her from her life dies, she comes back to New York, and the 1-6, to find her former partner and boyfriend, engaged.

June 14, 2002.

John Munch looked down the aisle past Odafin Tutuola, Casey Novak and Donald Cragen. His eyes slid past Fin's tactful show of emotion, Cragen's moist eyes, and Novak's blatant tears. They rested on Elliot Stabler. He stood there, clutching the pew, his eyes never leaving the casket. The only thing that showed he was still alive was the white of his knuckles, holding onto the wood, and the rise and fall of his chest. His eyes were locked on the casket, but his face was stoic. He showed no emotion.

None of the fulfilling love, burning guilt, or overwhelming desperation came out. He was numb. John Munch watched him watch as Cragen moved to the pulpit to say those cliché words about Elliot's partner.

Partner. It was funny how far that term spanned for Elliot and Olivia. At first they had been partners to the fullest extent. They were there for each other. No matter what. And slowly, it changed. It grew. Then Kathy took off, and they were left with what they could never talk about before.

And then, enter David North. He was a psychologist. A psychologist who raped girls who had issues. Not mental issues like autism or Down's, but psychological issues like alcoholic parents, or attachtment issues. And God love her, Olivia saw a little piece of her in every one of those girls. So she had to get him.

Unfortunatley for her, David North wasn't David North at all. He was really Vince Gianotti, an influential Mob boss, who had a high price on Olivia's head. An he got to her.

Elliot always thought it would be him. That if one of them was going to go down, he'd make sure it was him. Hell, he was so in love with her, he would have thrown Munch and Fin to the mob. Anyone but Olivia. But she was the one they got.

It shook Elliot to the very core. He was her partner. He was her lover. If that combination hadn't been enough to smarten him up enough to protect her, what was he even doing here?

John Munch listened as Cragen tried to Olivia justice through words. He looked around the crowded church. IAB reps, other Cops, Academy teachers, ME's, CSU, victims, victim's families. He looked back at Elliot Stabler.

One more victim, right down the pew.

* * *

Olivia Benson looked out the window. It was dusk, and all she could see was sky. She had stopped crying a long time ago. There was nothing inside her left to cry out. She felt numb.

She gripped the sides of her seat until her knuckles turned white, but she couldn't feel the exertion in her hand. They had switched planes in Atlanta, then flown back up the coast to Philadelphia, and still, no one would tell her where they were going.

She felt sick. The flight was calm, the air was placid. She felt sick. She closed her eyes and imagined what Elliot was doing right now, and she realized. He's at my funeral. She was bitter, and angry already. There really wasn't much justice. She fell in love with Elliot Stabler, one of the first cases she worked with him. A girl was murdered at a college, and they came across her memorial.

Elliot had told her something about if he ever went down, she better make sure that it didn't look like that, or he would haunt her. And she had smiled in the sunlight. And her life had never been the same.

And then Kathy left. Up and left with not a lot of warning. And he had come to her. And they had fought and they had struggled, and they had ended up falling into each other in every possible way. And Olivia had been so incredulous. She never thought, never for a second, that something like this could happen to her. But it did.

And then she had pushed herself too far. She had pushed and pushed and then, that last night, she had pushed until she felt the tear of flesh in her chest.

And Elliot had been telling her for weeks to slow down, be careful. She had scoffed at it, taken offense to it. She was a big bad cop. She could handle herself against one shrink.

And Elliot, oh he had gotten a feeling. There's something about him Liv. He would say. And she would laugh and tell him he was being paranoid, and then she would switch off the lights.

And look where it had gotten her. Olivia Benson had always been stubborn. Stubborn to a fault. Goal oriented. Reckless. Usually, it was what made her so good at her job. This time, it had gotten her a plane ride away from life and love. It had gotten her a new license that said Lucy Campbell. It had been her downfall.


	2. Chapter 1

Title: Streetlights and Skylines

Author: Sara and Lizzie

Rating: T for language, a little violence and little sex

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf is God, obviously, since he really does own Law and Order, but since he'd never stick this on at 10 pm Tuesdays, we took the liberty of doing it for him.

Summary: Four years ago, Elliot attended Olivia's funeral. Little did he know, the casket was empty, and Olivia was in a condo in Los Angeles, calling herself Lucy. But, when the man who forced her from her life dies, she comes back to New York, and the 1-6, to find her former partner and boyfriend, engaged.

"All this time, I wonder how I never got the burn, and if I'm ever gonna learn." –Matchbox 20

June 13, 2006.

She sighed heavily. The sun was just starting to set over the Los Angeles skyline. Slim, graceful hands ran through sun streaked brown hair, and chocalate eyes stared out the glass window of Los Angeles International Airport. Long slender legs bent and hit plastic. Olivia Benson sat on the hard plastic seats and thought. The call had come five hours ago.

One day shy of four years gone, and the call came. She was going home. Olivia picked the cell phone out of her lap and dialed the still familiar number. It was almost ten in New York City, but she knew Don Cragen would be awake.

"Cragen."

She paused, having not been ready for sounds of her old life.

"Hello?" he demanded.

She found her voice. "Hey cap."

Silence. She couldn't speak and neither could he.

"Olivia?"

"I'm coming home."

"Witness Protection?"

"Los Angeles."

They spoke in short phrases, seemingly unable to string sentences together. The story pieced together, and slowly the last four years became more than gaps in lives.

"When do you leave?" her former boss asked her.

"Any minute." She replied.

His emotion covered by the darkness that had recently settled over the city, Cragen wrestled with his decsions and his demons. He saw Elliot's hollow eyes, and made a choice. "I'll expect you at work as soon as possible."

Relief flooded Olivia. "There's a place for me?"

"Elliot went through 8 partners in four years. Your desk is empty."

"I'll come in tomorrow."

Cragen was silent, hovering between letting her come home to a false vision of how things would be, or leveling with her. She read something in the silence that ate up the airwaves.

"How is he, anyway?" she asked tentatively.

"Engaged." Cragen asnwered plainly. "I'll see you tomorrow Liv."

She disconnected, and turned back to the window. She stared out at the vastness that was Los Angeles, and followed the 405 with her eyes. Los Angeles. It was a lot like New York, a glitzy city with a dark underbelly. He was engaged. To someone else.

She looked up at the Hollywood Hills, and out to the shoreline in the distance. She never told him. Never insisted on a midnight meeting like Alex had. Never made a discreet but telling phone call. Never sent a truthful letter or email. Because she hadnt wanted him to put his life on hold for her. It could have taken decades for her to get cleared.

But she thought he would put his life on hold for her. It was startling to hear that there was someone else. Her eyes slid back to the window. She tried to gauge the towns that made up LA. She picked out Santa Monica, and Venice Beach, and Beverly Hills. It was picturesque, really, if you could get past the traffic and the smog.

The sun was always shining here. The palm trees always stood tall, the beautiful people were everywhere. To stay here would be easy. She could cancel the plane ticket, call Cragen, head back to her condo in Santa Monica and leave it behind for good.

To stay here, in this wonderland, would be easy. To convince herself she could love someone, someone she had never met, someone who wasn't Elliot would be easy. To fall out of love with him and into love with someone else would be easy.

But Olivia Benson had never really done easy. And she wasn't about to start now. She looked out over the city again. It was pretty. A fantasy. And it was easy. It lacked, she saw substance. It lacked the complexity of New York. It lacked Elliot. So he was engaged.

So he wasn't hers anymore. But Olivia was a fighter, and she decided, in the airport, that she would have to fight for him. She couldn't live with herself if she gave it anything less than a fight.

* * *

The phone rining at 4 am woke Elliot Stabler. He rolled out of bed, and pulled on some clothes. Another day, another dollar. He scoffed at the simplicity of the saying. More like, andother gutter, another girl.

He sighed. Four years. Four fucking years of total emptiness. Here's to you, Liv, he thought sadly, hating himself again for not being able to rewrite their past. Not their past. It was only his past now. She was gone.

He lived in an apartment in the city now. He drove five blocks out of his way every day, just so he wouldn't have to pass hers. The thought of someone else living there made him feel sick. Elliot turned to his window and watched the skyline. It illuminated his bedroom, and the lights seemed to stretch up to the sky.

Sometimes he dreamed of getting out. Away from the city where every he had covered what felt like every corner, every alley and every empty lot with her. Sometimes he imagined picking up and leaving this place that made him whisper olivia, and going somewhere with a little less substance. Somewhere sunny, where you werent so pensive, weren't so attached.

But there was Andrea now. They had started dating two years ago, when it became clear to Elliot that moving on was a fruitless effort and he might as well just start faking it.

So he pretended to be in love with her, because some days he believed it and it all hurt a little less. She kept him sane, and kept him here. Because he could never put her through what he went through.

He collected his keys, badge and gun, and left his apartment, emerging into the midst of warm summer night, in the city that refused to fall asleep.

* * *

The sun had been setting when she left Los Angeles, and it was just peeking up over the horizon when she got back to New York. She took a cab from JFK to her apartment. She marveled at the sights out the cab window, as if she had never seen them before.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" the cabbie asked her, mistaking her for a tourist.

"Nothing else like it." She agreed.

He smiled. "I'd be careful miss. Lot can happen in the big city."

"I'm betting on it."

The cab stopped in front of her building. She looked up at it, unchanged. She reached for the keys she had kept in her bag for four years, knowing that while her name would no longer be on the mailbox, the apartment was untouched.

"This the place?" the driver asked.

Olivia checked the fare, paid and tipped him. "This isn't the place. But it's my place." She sailed out the cab, and walked back into her old life.

* * *

Elliot shook his head. The sun was setting when he left this building, and now it was gaining elevation in the sky on his way back in. He sighed, tossed his stuff on his desk, and prepared to stomp into Cragen's office. Then it caught his eye. There was a cup of coffee on his desk, in the same cup that they gave at the place on the way to the station from Olivia's apartment.

No, Olivia's old apartment. He started to move and then stopped again. There was a stack of files and a thin sweater was draped over the arm of the chair. Elliot sighed again. Round nine. This time, he made it all the way to Cragen's office.

"Cap." He said, irritated. "Another one?"

Cragen shook his head, looking, as Elliot interpreted, overwhelmed.

"What is it?" the detective demanded.

Captain Cragen didn't know what to say. Olivia was wandering around the precinct, told to stay out of the squad room until Cragen had time to talk to Elliot, but IAB had just, wanting a full report on the whereabouts and reinstatement of Detective Benson.

"Elliot, head to the roof. I'll be there in ten minutes, I'll explain everything."

* * *

Olivia stood, marveling over the immense and expansive skyline. She looked up towards Harlem, and across the river to Brooklyn, mesmerized by the city.

She took it in, and felt the burning feeling she hadn't felt for years. She stared across Manhattan and let the determination and the anticipiation mix inside of her. She heard him come up the stairs and cross to the opposite side of the roof.

* * *

He didn't even look up. Elliot stormed up the stairs and to a corner of the roof without taking his eyes of off his feet. The sight of the sun rising over the city and making the rivers glitter was picteresque and pretty, and didn't match his mood at all.

She watched his back to her. He heart raced so fast she thought she might fall over. Four years. She bit her lip painfully hard, half expecting to wake up in a hospital bed and find she had been in a coma, and he was still married to Kathy.

She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. Still on the roof. It seemed so silent up here, and she thought she heard him exhale. Her hands were shaking. She wanted to slink back down the stairs and wait forever. But that wasn't what she came back for.

"Elliot."


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Streetlights and Skylines

Author: Sara and Lizzie

Rating: T for language, a little violence and little sex

Disclaimer: Dick Wolf is God, obviously, since he really does own Law and Order, but since he'd never stick this on at 10 pm Tuesdays, we took the liberty of doing it for him.

Summary: Four years ago, Elliot attended Olivia's funeral. Little did he know, the casket was empty, and Olivia was in a condo in Los Angeles, calling herself Lucy. But, when the man who forced her from her life dies, she comes back to New York, and the 1-6, to find her former partner and boyfriend, engaged.

Author's Note: The more reviews we get, the longer chapter we will post in return.

June 13, 2006.

Hollywood doesn't lie. All the cliché movie moments about how time stops, you can't breathe, and the world spins? All true. Elliot felt more emotion in the time it took that voice to say those three syllables than he had when Andrea said she'd marry him.

And that was the first thing that he thought of. That time really had stopped. The entire city had slowed, just to let him take in that moment. The second thinghe thought of was that all that mattered in life were a couple of key nanoseconds.

The fraction of time in his life it took for the voice to reigster. He would never, ever, be able to erase the memory of that voice. Just like the couple of seconds it took for it to register with him that she was dead, she was suddenly back to life.

Elliot turned around, slowly, and there she was, clear across the roof. She wore jeans and a long sleeve gray shirt. Her skin was tan, and her hair was streaked with a little blonde. And he didn't know what to say.

It was too much to decipher everything that was going through his head. Everrything from I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life, to isn't she dead?

"Elliot." She said again. It wasn't a question or an answer, and it just hung there between the two of them.

Olivia stood, rooted to the roof. She couldn't believe the havoc the last twenty four hours had wreaked, and it all ended here. With Elliot. Just like it always had. She looked at him and still felt everything you could feel for another person.

She surveyed him. His face was still strong, and his eyes were still startlingly blue. She felt an itch in her fingers and she knew she wanted to touch him. She moved a few steps closer.

"Liv." He finally whispered. She could barely hear him, but it was there.

She smiled tentatively. "Olivia, what the hell is going on?" he asked, his voice a little stronger.

"Come on, El." She whispered. "Gonna take more than a bullet to the chest to kill me." His eyes told her he wanted to hear more.

"They patched up the punctured lung. I was in a coma for three days, and when I woke up, they told me I was dead. I didn't really have a choice. Next thing I knew I was in Los Angeles."

Elliot shook his head, as if to clear it. He stepped closer to her, as if he could make himself believe it by mere distance.

"And now you're back?" he asked in the same hushed tone. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She wanted to stand on that roof and answer all his questions. She really did. But she couldn't. Technicalities would ruin this intricately complicated moment. So she did the only other thing she could think to do.

She closed the gap between them, and kissed him. And she was surprised when he kissed her back. Deepened it, even. He pulled her closer to him, and before she knew what was happening, he had one hande tangled in her hair.

Olivia felt her hands inching up under his untucked shirt and feeling the skin there. She pulled back slightly. "Elliot, I'm-"

Sorry. She was going to say sorry. But before it could come out their lips were fused together. Maybe she moved toward him first because her unwavering pride wouldn't let her say it. Or maybe he moved towards her because he wasn't quite ready to forgive her.

It was definetly him who reluctantly pulled away. "Jesus." He muttered, more to himself than her. "Olivia, I'm engaged."

She nodded calmly. "I know."

"So that's it?" he demanded. "You just show up after four years? Just cruise back in one day?"

She sighed. "I was in Witness Protection Elliot. It wasn't exactly a vacation."

They stared at each other, faces inches apart. Tears welled in her brown eyes, but she'd be damned if she let them spill over. It wasn't until he reached for her again, and put his arms around her, and hugged her to him that one finally fell down her cheek.

"I missed you." She whispered. It was silent. Really silent for a long time. She could hear the cars flying by on the street below.

And Elliot was thinking about losing and gaining and how everytime he settled into something, his life got completely turned around.

"Jesus, Liv. Of course I missed you." He said, answering her unasked question. He ccouldn't let go of her. It seemed more logical to hold her close, for fear if she got too far away, she'd slip out of sight, and none of this would be happening.

He looked over shoulder, at the sun rising ever higher in the sky, illuminating the skyline for another day in New York. And for the first time in a long time, Elliot appreciated the sight. He felt the promise that it held and he remembered why people came there.

It was all about new beginnings.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: Streetlights and Skylines**

**Author: Sara and Lizzie**

**Rating: T for language, a little violence and little sex**

**Disclaimer: Dick Wolf is God, obviously, since he really does own Law and Order, but since he'd never stick this on at 10 pm Tuesdays, we took the liberty of doing it for him.**

**Summary: Four years ago, Elliot attended Olivia's funeral. Little did he know, the casket was empty, and Olivia was in a condo in Los Angeles, calling herself Lucy. But, when the man who forced her from her life dies, she comes back to New York, and the 1-6, to find her former partner and boyfriend, engaged.**

**Author's Note: Okay. So we haven't updated this in over a YEAR. Maybe no one remembers it. Maybe no one wants to read it. Whatever. We just decided to go for it. **

**So um, REVIEW, we guess? **

The sleek black Lincoln Town car stalled in front of the sixteenth precinct. "Thank you Thomas." Said the lithe, sleek blonde from the plush, leather backseat. "I'll take a cab to my later engagement." She said to her driver, Thomas Fairchild. He nodded and smiled at her, and Andrea Lawrence got out of the car.

She was gorgeous, really. The Grace Kelly of post millennium New York. Socialite. Media Darling. Beloved daughter of one of the oldest, wealthiest families in America. And engaged to a detective who made say, seventy thousand dollars during a good year.

She really didn't mind though. She had enough money to keep herself in the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed, even if Elliot didn't make any money. She smiled to herself, recalling their first meeting. Having business in the area, she had instructed Thomas to park the town car, illegally in front of the station. When he had pointed it out to her, she had brazenly asked him out for coffee.

He was handsome, and honest and so different from anyone that she had dated before; it had initially been the novelty that attracted her to him, but when she got to know him, she had fallen in love with him, rather rapidly. Now, with their wedding a mere week and a half away, it was all hard to believe.

She walked into the precinct now, wearing tailored black Prozena Schuler Bermuda shorts and a Valnetino tank top. Her Manolo sling backs made slight clacking sounds as she opened the door, simultaneously hoisting her Chanel bag onto her shoulder and pushing her Gucci sunglasses on top of her head.

She looked around, but Elliot was no where to be seen. She recognized John Munch and Fin Tutola, as well as Casey Novak, who were sitting casually on desks, laughing with a gorgeous, tan brunette Andrea had never seen before.

She hesitated, unsure of whether or not she should call attention to herself. She always had a nagging feeling that John, Fin and Casey didn't quite accept her. She knew there had been someone else, between Kathy and herself, but she didn't even know the woman's name. But she always had the distinct feeling everyone else in Elliot's life was comparing her to that woman.

Her Treo rang intrusively, causing all four heads to turn in her direction. She checked her Treo; it was Michelle, her sister in Boston. She silenced her Treo, knowing her sister would leave a lengthy message for her later enjoyment.

She smiled in the direction of her fiancé's colleagues. "Hi." She said, coming forward, hand extended to shake the brunette's hand. "Andrea Lawrence." She said, pumping her hand.

"Olivia Benson." The brunette said, a bemused expression on her face.

"Oh." Andrea said. "Aren't you… Elliot said you were…"

Olivia's bow furrowed. "I was in witness protection." She said stiffly, a horrible realization coming over her. "And you are…."

"His fiancée." Andrea said with a chipper smile. "He's told me about you. His old partner."

"His partner. No longer past tense." Olivia said.

Andrea nodded. "Right. Is he here?"

"He's on the roof." Munch told her.

She exited in a clatter of heels, and Olivia whirled around. "His fiancée is _Andrea Lawrence_?" she hissed. "Andrea freaking Lawrence?"

Casey smiled weakly and nodded as Olivia sank into her desk chair.

* * *

"There you are!" Andrea said, spotting Elliot standing along the far edge of the roof, staring out over the expanse that was Manhattan.

"Andie." He said. "What are you doing here?" She walked over to him and placed a delicate kiss on his lips.

"I have a little bad news." She said. "I'm afraid I need to fly to Paris for a few days." Elliot sighed. Of course she chose now to leave. He didn't know if he should laugh, cry, or just throw himself off the roof of the precinct. Andrea had a job, as a freelance fashion writer, and was often jetting off to some designer's showroom.

"I know the wedding is only a few days away and I hate to leave, but Anna has decided she wants the Lagerfeld piece in the same Vogue that our wedding will be in," she smiled, "So it's got to be done now."

Elliot felt desperation creeping into his bones. He was marrying this woman. This charming, beautiful woman. So what if she wasn't Olivia? If she had more money than the entire NYPD, and hated nicknames and would never dream of calling him El? He was going to marry her. That didn't mean he wanted her to leave the country with Olivia suddenly back in New York.

"I could go with you." He suggested.

She laughed her delicate laugh. "Elliot. That's absurd. You have work, and for God's sake, someone has to make sure the wedding planner stays on task."

"Of course." He said, eliciting a classic, white toothed smile. She loved that he fit into her perfectly ordered world at all times. "Right, also, look at this." She said, handing him a manilla envelope.

"What is this again?" he asked, hearing the distraction in his own voice.

"Paris real estate guide." She said. She checked her Cartier tank watch. "Okay, I've got a lunch at Pastis, and then my plane leaves, so I've got to run."

"Andrea, I can't leave New York. My kids are here. My job is here."

She smiled, tucking the single strand of blonde hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her left ear. "Nonsense. We'll find you a new job. Trust me. Details later. I'll call you." She kissed him, and as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone.

He ambled down the stairs a few minutes after she had gone, flipping through the glossy booklet, staring absent mindedly at the over priced townhouses along the Champs Elysees. Munch caught up with him in the hall before he made it back to his desk.

"Paris, eh?"

"She wants to move there."

"Don't do it, Elliot. Ex- marine? You'll hate the French."

"Funny, Munch."

"Liv was pretty shocked to meet her. Apparently she didn't know it was _that_ Andrea."

Elliot's head snapped up. "She met Liv?"

"What did you expect us to do? Stuff her in a closet?"

"Of course not." Elliot sighed, rubbing his hand over his head. "I just didn't expect this all to be so…complicated."

* * *

They were the last two detectives in the squad room that night. Olivia stood up at her desk, where they had been graciously ignoring each other all day and flashed him a tentative smile. "Can we talk?" she asked.

He gathered his own belongings from his desk and followed her outside. They walked slowly down the street, and Olivia searched for the words.

"I'm sorry." She said suddenly.

"For what? For leaving without a word? For not getting in touch with me for four years? For coming back the week before my wedding?"

"I don't know, Elliot. I'm just sorry."

He stopped walking and turned to face her. "Did it mean that little to you? That you could just give it all up without so much as a sign to me that you weren't dead?"

"No, Elliot, it meant that much to me. I had no idea how long I would be in the program. I didn't know the danger that would be posed to you if you knew where I was." She trailed off and looked at him.

Their eyes locked, and she didn't break the contact as she spoke again. "El, this is all I'm going to say. I love you. For years, I've loved you. But if you can tell me now that you don't love me anymore, I'll go. I'll be on the next plane out of here, and you'll never hear from me again."

Time stopped again for Elliot Stabler. "I…," he faltered. "I can't say that."

"Then I'm staying. I can't turn back time, El. I can't change any of the choices I made, I know it's too late. And I don't expect you to just, forgive me, but I have to fight for you." She kissed him on the cheek, turned and briskly walked down the sidewalk, leaving him dumbfounded in her wake.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title: Streetlights and Skylines**

**Author: Sara and Lizzie**

**Rating: T for language, a little violence and little sex**

**Disclaimer: Dick Wolf is God, obviously, since he really does own Law and Order, but since he'd never stick this on at 10 pm Tuesdays, we took the liberty of doing it for him.**

**Summary: Four years ago, Elliot attended Olivia's funeral. Little did he know, the casket was empty, and Olivia was in a condo in Los Angeles, calling herself Lucy. But, when the man who forced her from her life dies, she comes back to New York, and the 1-6, to find her former partner and boyfriend, engaged.**

**Author's Note: Okay. We told you we'd be regular with this. Check out 'Into The Fire' and 'Murphy's Law', as well as 'Notorious'. We're going to try and get those all updated by Monday.**

**So um, REVIEW, we guess? **

_"All this feels strange and untrue,  
and I won't waste a minute without you,  
the anger swells in my gut, and I won't feel  
these slices and cuts."  
-Snow Patrol_

Olivia dropped down on the barstool in between Munch and Casey. "Who the hell is this woman?" she asked.

"Hello to you, Liv." Munch quipped. "So glad you're back. I've been fine, thanks for asking, means a lot."

She shook her head, got the attention of the bartended and ordered a dirty martini. Casey raised her eyebrows. Olivia winced. "L.A. thing. Sorry, John. Don't take it the wrong way. I'm really glad to be out of witness protection, but I never imagined he'd be…."

"Engaged to the most eligible single woman in Manhattan?" Munch supplied. "Well, no, neither did we."

Olivia shook her head. "She's beautiful," she moaned. "She wears Valentino in broad daylight, for God's sakes."

Casey nodded. "Did you see those Blahnik heels? God, I'd kill for a pair."

Olivia rolled her eyes as Fin sank onto the stool next to Munch. "Old times, huh?" he asked. Olivia smiled at him.

"It's so good to see all of you guys again." She bit her lower lip, something they all recognized as her tell tale anxious habit. "So where did he meet her?"

Casey took a sip of her drink. "She parked her town car right in front of the precinct."

Olivia pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. "How did this happen?" she asked, sounding incredulous. "He was… he was supposed to be in love with me."

"He is, Liv." Casey supplied, helpfully. "He thought you were dead. We all did."

Olivia nodded. Munch nudged her. "Stop wallowing." So she straightened up, downed her martini, and let her mind wander to how, exactly, she was going to fight for him.

* * *

She got to the precinct early the next morning, beating everyone there except for Cragen. She walked in and smiled at him, depositing all of her things on her desk.

"I won't say I told you so, Olivia." He said.

She eyed him quizzically. "Told me what?"

"I told you getting involved with your partner was going to come back and bite you in the ass."

She sighed. "You did say that, didn't you?"

Cragen nodded, his twinkling eyes showing her he wasn't upset. She frowned as his face turned serious. "He's different now, though Olivia. He lived because he had you. Without you, he shut down. He's colder. Numb."

Olivia nodded. "Yeah, I can tell."

Cragen nodded back. "You always could tell, Liv. You always could tell."

* * *

Elliot woke up the next morning in a haze. Two days ago, life had made sense. Olivia was alive, she was here, and she had vowed to fight for him. It thrilled and terrified him at the same time. He was walking into the precinct when he almost ran over Munch.

"Whoa." Munch warned. "I'm not the spry young thing I used to be."

Elliot attempted a vague smile. "What the hell is this, John?"

"She loves you. She always has."

"Why now? Why ten days before my _wedding_?"

"It's not like she could plan the date she got out of the program, Elliot."

"You have vast experience with women. What do you think?"

"I think I can't make decisions for you, Stabler. This one's all you. But if you want my expert, objective opinion, shit happens, and here it happened. You've got deal with it. You just need to figure out what you want."

* * *

It was hours later, sitting at his desk, he examined Olivia. She was still gorgeous. She was tan, and her sun streaked bangs hung across her forehead. Same perfect eyes and mouth. Same tantalizing curves.

Olivia pretended not to watch Elliot while he watched her. She couldn't help it. He was right across the desk, so close she could practically touch him. And she wished she could. He still looked strong, sexy. Still had those chiseled features and those ice blue eyes.

Elliot looked up and met her eyes. She held his gaze, but he swept his eyes down to the cold metal of his desk. He felt vulnerable, drawn in by her. He shook his head, grabbed his coffee mug and stood. He was getting married.

* * *

"Jesus, Olivia, I don't believe this."

"I don't either." She said.

"He never would have gotten engaged. If he'd known." Kathy said, stumbling over her words. It was very strange, talking to your ex husband's ex girlfriend who he loved more than he had loved you.

"Andrea Lawrence. She owns half of Manhattan."

"Her family does. She's not all sunshine and rainbows, Liv." Kathy said, as the two women fell back into their usual banter. They had become friends, somehow. Kathy had remarried, and they had become friends. "Call me anytime. Good luck."

"Thank you, Kathy." Olivia said, hanging up. She sat in the precinct, glad to have a focus, glad to have a goal, but she still felt an underlying sense of apprehension. What if he stayed with her? What if he married into billions of dollars, and half of Manhattan? What would she do then?

* * *

"Fifty says he has sex with her by the end of the week." Fin said.

Munch chuckled. "I give it two days."

Casey shook her head. "Seventy five says he stays with the pampered princess. He has severe attachment issues."

Huang rolled his eyes at all of them. "While Casey brings up an excellent point about attachment phobias, this is ridiculous. This is complicated, intense. It's not the Kentucky Derby."

They all stared at him. He shook his head. "Fine. Two hundred says he picks Olivia."

* * *

Olivia was fiddling with the items in the top drawer of desk, trying to remember how they'd been arranged before she left, when Cragen left his office. "Benson, Stabler." He bellowed. "Teen girl brought into Lennox Hill last night for a broken wrist, nurse sees scratches on her inner thighs, they ran a rape kit, it was positive. Get down there, and talk to her."

They stood up at the same time. Olivia scooped up the keys to the sedan and tossed them to Elliot. He caught them, surprised they still had that fluid rhythm. It was like she never left.


End file.
